Chondrites Show Evidence of Large Impact in the Early Solar System

Chondrites Show Evidence of Large Impact in the Early Solar System

TNRTB Archive – Retained for reference information

An international team of researchers has enhanced scientists’ understanding of planetary formation, found additional evidence for design in the solar system, and confirmed the antiquity of meteorites. Using lead isotope dating, the team found that chondrules in the meteorites were 4.563 billion years old and, therefore, date to the earliest times of the solar system. Analysis of the chondrules also shows that they formed by heating from a giant impact between planetary embryos after the dust in the early solar system had dissipated. This result demonstrates the presence of planetary-sized objects early in the solar system that coalesced into planets. These objects had been colliding at the right time when a highly fine-tuned collision between two of them formed the Earth-Moon system.